Necktie



F. M. MULRONEY NECKTTE i Filed Nov. 1, 1922 a am?! FEANKM MULPONEY Patented Dec. 23, 1924.

UNHTED STATES FRANK M. MULRONEY,

0F FORT DODGE, IOWA.

NECKTIE.

Application filed November To all whom it may concern:

Be itknown that I, FRANK M. MULRONEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Fort Dodge, in the county of Webster and State of Iowa, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Neckties, of which the following is a specification.

This invention comprehends certain new and useful improvements in neckt-ies and especially in that type of tie such as a fourin-hand, in which the knot is tied by the wearer in contradistinction to those that are made up or in which the knot is already made when the wearer purchases the tie.

As is well known, the repeated tying and untying of a knot in the ordinary four-inhand necktie causes the scarf soon to become wrinkled and stringy, not only by the successive formations of the knot but by the necessity of sliding the relatively narrow end of the scarf through the knot in the operation of causing the neck encircling portion of the necktie and the knot, to snugly. encircle and engage the neck of the wearer, and with a knowledge of these conditions,

my present invention has for its primary object a new article of manufacture, comprising a necktie that comes into the hands of the purchaser or wearer to all intents and purposes similar to the ordinary one-piece tie or scarf which in fact it is at that time, but provided with the hereinafter specified detachable assembly that will enable the wearer, if he desires, to cut or sever the neck encircling portion of the tie contiguous to said detachable assembly, or to rip off the assembly if he desires to doso, and does not care for'the use thereof, leaving the tie as the ordinary one-piece scarf heretofore long known. 5

If with my new construction of necktie the purchaser wears soft collars either detachable or attached to the shirt, he may then elect to sever the neck encircling portion of the necktie underneath or between the points where the said detachable. assembly is attached to the tie and can subsequently use the tie in such manner that it will be necessary for him to tie the knot only once, the knot remaining where first tied as long as the wearer desires 1t to so remain,

the tie being susceptible of being removed from the neck and applied thereto within the collar any number of times without the necessity of tying the knot over again and without the necessity of sliding the rela- 1 1922. Serial Nor 593,382.

tively narrow tying end through the knot whereby as is evident, the disadvantages incidental to repeated tyings as above mentioned will be entirely obviated and the tie will retain its fresh and new appearance for a long time.

For a full understanding of the invention, reference is to be had to the following description and accompanying drawing, in which Figure l is a perspective view of a fourin-hand tie embodying the improvements of my invention.

Fig. 2 is a similar view looking at the rear side of the tie and with the knot tied. a

Fig. 3 is a view showing one application of the device in use with a soft collar.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary perspective view showing the parts after the neck encircling portion has been severed and with the two members of the detachable assembly in detached relation to each other, and

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary view of the neck encircling portion of the tie showing a feature that will be hereinafter described.

Corresponding and like parts are referred to in the following description and designated in all of the views of the accompanying drawing by like reference characters.

Referring to the drawing, the numeral 1 designates a four-in-hand necktie provided with the usual relatively wide end portion 2, the relatively narrow end portion 3, and the intermediate or neck encircling portion 4, the tie, as will be manifest from the drawing, being an integral structure, for it is the primary object of this invention to produce this improved necktie as a one-piece article, being sold to the purchaser as such.

At'a predetermined point in the neck on circling portion 4:, preferably somewhat near the relatively narrow end portion 3, my improved detachable assembly is at tached, this comprising a preferably inelastic looped tab 5 secured in any desired manner to the tie material, preferably by stitching, and an elastic member 6 which is also attached at one end to the tie material, preferably by stitching-and which is preferably formed with an extension slide 7. In the loop of the tab 5 and the elastic-member 6 are held complemental separable fasteners designated 8 and 9 respectively, and in this connection it is to be particularly noted that these fastening members 8 and 9 are not of a bulky nature, for the reason that it is diflicult to get a large clumsy fas; tener to slide in and about acollar, these fasteners being of such a nature that they will not to any extent prevent the tie from sliding readily within or around the collar. In the present instance, the fastener 8 is in the form of a loop or eye and the fastener 9 in the form of a very flat or short post engageable 'with the eye so as to occupy a minimum amount of space and avoidany interference with the slidability of the tie within the collar.

From the foregoing description, in connection with the accompanying drawing, it will be understood that when my improved necktie is'placed on sale in the shops, it will have to all intents and purposes the appearance of the. ordinary one-piece four-in-. hand tie, which it is, so far as this one-piece characteristic is concerned, but it will also have as part of it the detachable'assembly above described so that the wearer after he purchases the tie, can, if he desires, cut through the neck encircling portion and thereafter use the tie as a two-piece article.

separably connected together whereby only one or an initial tying of the knot will be required, no matter how many times the necktie is removed and applied; or if he desires to do so, he can readily rip off or cut off the detachable assembly and use it as the ordinary one-piece necktie without the separable or detachable feature above mentioned.

Among the advantages of this improved article may be mentioned the fact that the tie comes into the hands of the wearer to all intents and PUIPOSBSrthQ, same as any ordinary t-ieand whether the purchaser subsequently makes a two-piece tie out of it, or

leaves it as a one-piece tie, as above mentioned, in either event the tie is slidable in the collar whether st-arched or soft, and can be used as a necktie is now commonly used, namely, tied and untied, or can be removed without disturbing the knot by the use of the detachable connecting devices. Another advantage, as will be manifest, resides in the fact that the tie will keep in stock much better than if the neck portion were severed by the manufacturer or dealer to form a two-piece tie, there being no chance for either of the tying ends toget lost before the tie is actually put into use.

Preferably the detachable connecting device or assembly is located on the neck encircling portion of the tiev in such a way that in the tied position of the necktie it will come at the side ora little towards the front of the collar rather than at the back or towards the back, the advantage of this residing in the fact that the space between the inner and outer bands of the collar is greater at the side and towards the front and does not hug the neck SO Closely as towards the back, and that Whatever ,bulk there is in the fastener, the same will cause less trouble and enable the tie to slide in the collar more readily and be made more easy of access for removal and replacement.

It is further to be noted that in my construction the elastic member 6 is short and stout, rather than long and flexible, thereby permitting the wearer to much more easily tie his own knot as it is well known that quite a little stress and pull is brought to bear on the tying ends of the necktie during the knot forming process, and if the elastic is too long or has too much elasticity, it is almost impossible to tie the knot; However, suflicient elastic is used to enable the wearer to readily unfasten and fasten the two separated parts of the neck encircling portion of the tie and to prevent such portion from being absolutely rigid and also to relieve stress or strain on the relatively narrow or back tying end of the tie, whereby the knot is prevented from slipping down upon and wearing out upon the back or relatively narrow tying end as will be obvious.

Preferably in the manufacture of the tie, the neck encircling portion has printed on the inner face thereof, two longitudinally spaced and transversely extending lines 10 that are located contiguous to lines of stitching 11 extending preferably parallel to the printed lines and adjacent the. stitching 12 that is used to attach to the tie the tab 5 and elastic member 6; and printed on the inner face of this portion of the tie, defined by and between the two transverse printed lines 10 are oppositel extending darts or arrows 13 between which preferably appear in print the words Cut here?- Then in the practical application of the invention, the wearer, if he desires to use the tie as a two-piece article, as hereinbefore described, will cut out that portion of the tie between the lines of stitching 11, leaving no edges that might be liable to subsequently ravel; and in placing it in position he will preferably turn up the outer band'of hissoft collar, then placing it around his neck, then tying the customary knot and positioning it properly at the front asis customary, and finally turning down the outer band of the collar, whereupon the tie will be in proper tied position. Manifestly after the first tying, the tie is removed and replaced on the neck of the wearer by turning up the outer soft collar band or by turning the same down and using the detachable connecting device without the necessity of sliding the back or relatively narrow tying end through the knot.

In this invention, it is obvious that I have had in mind the awkward method that is now in vogue relative to the removal and replacement of the neckties. As is well known the method employed by a great -many young men in the removal and replace- I he turns up the outer band of the soft collar and then slips the knot down on the back tying end but not entirely out of the knot, only far enough down to make a loop of sufiicient size so that the tie may be removed by passing the loop over his head, and when he wishes to replace the tie he passes the loop down over his head again and closes the loop by pulling the back tying end through the knot, the outer collar band being then turned down with the tie in proper position.

As is manifest, the method above described is very destructive to the back tying end and also to the knot. The knot loses its fresh and neat appearance by reason of the stress which is brought to bear upon it during' the pulling process and the back tying end soon becomes frayed and stringy, and

' the purchase of a new tie is made necessary I claim that my invention Wlll overcome tlllS present awkward method and relieve the wearer from the necessity of ever slipping his knot, thereby. making for longer wear of the back tying end 'and preserving the new and neat appearance of the first knot tied in the .tie.. In fact it will preserve the first knot permanently, there being no necessity for ever disturbing it in any way.

But some silks are-of such a character that the surface is smooth and slippery and I find that no matter how tightly the knot is tied, the back tying end has a tendency to slip through the knot when in a tied position, this causing inconvenience to the wearer and disturbing the set of the stickpin if any is worn. To overcome this objectionable feature I have provided a strip of rougher material on the inside surface of the back tying end, as indic'ated at 14 on the accompanying drawing. Preferably this rough material is about four to six inches long and extends along the inside surface of the back tying end a suflicient distance that it will terminate at one end close to the severed extremity as clearly illustrated in Fig. 2 whereby it will always extend through the knot, when the latter is formed, and thus prevent any acci-.

dental slippage. This feature will permit of slipping the knot whenever it is desired to do so but the knot will not slip readily or accidentally for the rough material of which the strip 14 is composed, provides sufiicient friction within the knot so that the knot will stay permanently in position unless the wearer desires to loosen the collar and tie at the front as is sometimes done in playing golf or tennis. But the main idea is to hold the knot firmly and keep it from slipping, but not so firmly that it will be impossible to move it at all.

If the purchaser wears starched collars he m'ay, of course, leave off the whole detachable assembly although this will not be found necessary for he may disregard it if he prefers as it is my intention that the entire detachable assembly be made of the least possible bulk and in such a way as to readily slide in a starched or soft collar. He may, of course, desire to leave the detachable assembly in position instead of removing it, as he may have in mind the use of the tie at some future time in connection with a soft collar.

It is, of course, to be, understood that while I have herein referred solely to a necktie of the four-in-hand type, and have designated that type only in the oflicial drawing, my invention is applicable for use also in connection with neckties of the bow or string type, although it is primarily designed for use in connection with a four-in-hand tie and with soft collars.

What is claimed is:

As a new article of manufacture, the here- .indescribed necktie comprising front and back tying portions and an .intermediate neck encircling portion designed to be severed at a predetermined point to form ends, each of which is provided with a member of a separable fastening, and a friction strip attacl1ed-.to the inside surface of the back tying end and extending a sufiicient distance along-the same whereby one end will terminate close to the severed extremity of the back'tying portion and thus insure that said friction strip Willbe included ,in the-knot when tied, as and .for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

FRANK MULRONEY. 

